Quick guide:
A Definition of Homelessness
What would be your definition? Homelessness is a complex issue.
- A single mother making minimum wage who loses the struggle to afford rent, childcare, transportation and food
- A family whose father suffers a debilitating illness and is unable to work
- A man who suffers from mental illness without the resources for treatment
- A child who ages out of the foster care system at age 18
- A family with children living paycheck to paycheck when the mother is laid off
- A young man caught up in the despair of drug and alcohol addictions
- A woman escaping an abusive relationship with nothing but the clothes on her back
- A man who because he is homeless without an address, phone number, clean clothes, a place to shower and food, can not secure gainful employment despite having needed skills
- A elderly couple living on a fixed income facing rising rents, insurance, and medication costs
- A family living in their car because the apartment they struggled to afford has been converted to condos; the parents are terrified they will lose their children
All of these are homeless, but most homelessness combines two or more categories. Who are the homeless… maybe not the people you expect. Check out Unexpected Faces, Unexpected Places or Who are the Homeless? at the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County (HCHC) web site.
Here are some other informative links about the identity of the homeless:
Why People Become Homeless
Homelessness results from a complex set of circumstances, which require people to choose between food, shelter, and other basic needs. Only a concerted effort to ensure jobs that pay a living wage, adequate support for those who cannot work, affordable housing, and access to health care will bring an end to homelessness. Homelessness is more than just being without a house. The vast majority of homeless people are actually entangled in one or more struggles that threaten their self-sufficiency. While is often no one single cause of homelessness, here are the common precursors:
- low-paying job
- unemployment
- lack of needed social and public services
- domestic violence
- drug and alcohol addiction
- insufficient education
- poverty
- family breakup
- physical and mental illness
- catastrophic illness
- disasters (i.e. fires/storms)
- death of a family member
Want to learn more? Check out Why People Become Homeless at the HCHC website.
Chronic Homelessness
Chronic homelessness is long-term or repeated homelessness of a person with a disability. Many chronically homeless people have a serious mental illness like schizophrenia and/or alcohol or drug addiction. Most people who experience chronic homelessness have been in treatment programs, sometimes on dozens of occasions. Perhaps this group presents the most challenges to reintegrating into mainstream.
Although chronic homelessness represents a small share (18%) of the overall homeless population, chronically homeless people use up more than 50 percent of the services. The most successful model for housing people who experience chronic homelessness is permanent supportive housing using a Housing First approach. In this approach stable housing is combined with supportive services such as case management, mental health and substance abuse services, health care, and employment. The Housing First approach is a client-driven strategy that provides immediate access to an apartment without requiring participation in psychiatric treatment or treatment for sobriety. After settling into stable housing, clients are offered a wide range of supportive services that focus primarily on helping them maintain their stability and integration into a productive life.
The fact that they have illnesses that may significantly disrupt their lives doesn’t diminish their rights, their responsibilities, or their dreams. People with serious mental illnesses and/or co-occurring substance use disorders become homeless because they are poor, and because mainstream health, mental health, housing, vocational, and social services programs are unable or unwilling to serve them. They also are subject to ongoing discrimination, stigma, and even violence. Above all people who are chronically homeless are people first. Want to learn more?
Quick Guide to other pages:
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